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Trump backer out at Energy Dept. after anti-Muslim tweets surface

The Energy Department cut ties Friday with Sid Bowdidge, a political appointee and former Trump campaign worker who has made inflammatory anti-Muslim comments on Twitter, according to Buzzfeed and other outlets. Bowdidge had been working at DOE's Office of Technology Transitions, but as Greentech Media notes he appears to lack any related policy background.

In 2015 the massage therapist from New Hampshire responded on Twitter to a CNN tweet about the San Bernardino shooters with a tweet stating: "Scum suckling maggots of the world. Exterminate them all." He has also tweeted that "Obama won't use the term radical Islam because they're his relatives!!!!"

Why it matters: Trump's operation has already been under the microscope for installing temporary "beachhead" political appointees at agencies who have little or no relevant experience.